title: Direct evidence for attention-dependent influences of the frontal eye-fields on feature-responsive visual cortex.
abstract: Voluntary selective attention can prioritize different features in a visual scene. The frontal eye-fields (FEF) are one potential source of such feature-specific top-down signals, but causal evidence for influences on visual cortex (as was shown for "spatial" attention) has remained elusive. Here, we show that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to right FEF increased the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals in visual areas processing "target feature" but not in "distracter feature"-processing regions. TMS-induced BOLD signals increase in motion-responsive visual cortex (MT+) when motion was attended in a display with moving dots superimposed on face stimuli, but in face-responsive fusiform area (FFA) when faces were attended to. These TMS effects on BOLD signal in both regions were negatively related to performance (on the motion task), supporting the behavioral relevance of this pathway. Our findings provide new causal evidence for the human FEF in the control of nonspatial "feature"-based attention, mediated by dynamic influences on feature-specific visual cortex that vary with the currently attended property.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
authors.forename: Klaartje
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heinen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience School of Psychology & Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 7BE, UK.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Feredoes
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
authors.forename: Nikolaus
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Weiskopf
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK Laboratory for Social and Neural System Research (SNS-Lab), University of Zurich, Zurich CH-8006, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christian C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Ruff
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK.
authors.forename: Jon
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Driver
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: concurrent TMS-fMRI; feature attention; frontal eye-fields; top-down control